Parental alienation involves the systematic brainwashing, poisoning and manipulation of children with the sole purpose of destroying a loving and warm relationship they once shared with a parent. My story involves this form of child abuse & exploring the bias favouring a mother in the social ecosystem around Family Law.

I have met and heard the tragic stories of many parents. PA is a function, by and large, of a custodial ex-partner, although some alienation can start while the couple is still together.

This blog is a story of experiences and observations of dysfunctional Family Law (FLAW), an arena pitting parent against parent, with children as the prize. Due to the gender bias in Family Law, that I have observed, this Blog has evolved from a focus solely on PA to one of the broader Family/Children's Rights area and the impact of Feminist mythology on Canadian Jurisprudence and the Divorce Industry.

INDIGENOUS MEN'S HEALTH

With special guests:

Ashley Gordon and

Craig Hammond.

This week we’re broadcasting to you from the opening of the week long National Men’s Health Gatheringin Newcastle, which is about 2 hours north of Sydney. This national event occurs every alternate year and the whole week is dedicated to the health issues facing men today and how we can best deal with those issues.
The state of health of Australian men has been ignored and neglected for many decades by successive governments, while at the same time, the cultural landscape for men, has in recent times come under severe attack from many sources, causing a further deterioration in the well being of the nations' men and boys.
We are dedicating the whole of this weeks' program to the opening day at this year's National Men’s Health Gathering, which starts the week with the 5th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Male Health Convention.
We also speak with former rugby league star Ashley Gordon, "Aboriginal people and gambling" a dedicated Aboriginal leader and one of the organisers of the convention. Ashley is joined by fellow convention organiser and Aboriginal leader Craig Hammond, "The Brothers Inside Project" who is also committed to improving the physical and mental health of the nations' Indigenous men.
If we want to see what is in store for our men and our culture, we need look no further then the enormous task faced by our Indigenous community to restore the health, dignity and well being of their men and boys. To their great credit and our national shame these communities are working hard to re-engage their once proud Men and have their cultural landscape restored.
The deplorable state of mens' health in Australia, is in no small part due to the fact that it has by and large been ignored by Australian governments and the media. Despite the fact that we are proud to be able to claim that Dads On The Air were the only media organisation to cover this important national week long event, it is an absolute disgrace that the nations' media completely ignored reporting on this event and the dire state of our mens' health.
Around five hundred concerned men and women came to Newcastle from every corner of our nation to discuss the state of men's health in Australia yet our media didn't rate it a mention. Have we reached the stage where our society now only views its men as a dispensable commodity?
While our national media is quick to demonize and portray all men as abusive thugs at every opportunity because of the actions of a few misfits, it completely ignores the plight of the majority of good men, who are responsible, decent human beings, ready to sacrifice their own lives in order to protect the lives of the women and children of this great nation.
This unrelenting assault on the status and dignity of the men in our society has seen a steady deterioration in their general health, both mental and physical. For example, currently all responsible men face the prospect of forcibly having their children and property removed from them, at the whim of a vindictive ex partner aided and abetted by a deplorable family justice system, and find themselves powerless to prevent this happening. This occurs because of community apathy and ignorance and most men’s mistaken belief that it will never happen to them.
As a result we see a fractured society with hundreds of thousands of children living in fatherless homes. Many of these children have no responsible male role models in their lives at all, and while astonishingly this is seen as being in the Best Interest of the Children, the ramifications of these policies are going to have some dreadful outcomes for future generations.
Ashley Gordon is an Indigenous Research Consultant and a trained gambling counsellor who has extensive experience in community education and in program design, development and delivery for Indigenous peoples and communities. He has held Board positions on the Hunter Area Health Aboriginal Health Forum, Hunter Area Consultative Committee, Hunter Council on Problem Gambling, NSW Council on Problem Gambling, Myan Indigenous Employment Network, Hunter Disability Network, Awabakal Aboriginal Lands Council, and the Northern NSW Police Aboriginal Committee.
Formerly a high school teacher, Ashley's more recent career activities have involved working with fellow Indigenous Australians in the areas of life skills training, drug and alcohol counselling, enterprise development, sport and physical education, health and public health, employment, and gambling counselling, community education and needs assessments. Formerly a First Grade Player for the Newcastle Knights football club, he has considerable respect amongst Indigenous peoples and a wide network of contacts. He is currently employed as Manager Counselling and Marketing Programs with LeapFrog Ability in Newcastle NSW. Ashley is currently working on two Indigenous gambling projects with the CGER.
Craig Hammond heads the "Brothers Inside Project" which was first piloted in the Cessnock Corrective Centre with the support of Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation and Mercy Foundation. The project works with Indigenous men in gaol to focus on their role as fathers whilst in gaol and upon their release.The Brothers Inside Project has been piloted in Cessnock Corrective Centre with the support of Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation and Mercy Foundation. The project works with Indigenous men in gaol to focus on their role as fathers whilst in gaol and upon their release.

The discussion is interesting and confusing just like family court. The feminists and maternalists want it both ways. They raise the issue of abuse, often falsely, in their court affidavits but then advise people like Chisholm they didn't raise it because they didn't think any one would listen. Which is it? Is Bryant or Chisholm starting to see through the smokescreen they put up to maintain ownership and possession of children at the expense of loving dads.MJM

FAMILY Court judges are not getting enough information to make a proper assessment about the risk of violence in divorce proceedings, judge Diana Bryant says.

However, Chief Justice Bryant says it is a "cop-out" for people to say they do not raise violence issues in the belief nothing will happen - or that it will work against them.

It has been a difficult year for the court, with the death of three-year-old Darcey Freeman in January leading to criticism that it is not attuned to the risk of violent parents.

There has also been criticism of the shared parenting laws, which require the court to presume a child's best interests are served by a continuing relationship with both parents.

The Chief Justice said those who shift blame to the Family Court for their troubles should instead look to the litigants when things go wrong.

"We get the cases where no one is going to be particularly happy," she said. "In children's cases, mostly they have got substance-abuse issues, mental-health issues, family violence - significant family violence or child-abuse issues.

"I don't think that things are caused by decisions. I think people's personalities and motivations drive them in the end."

She said violence cases were the most difficult in family law.

"They are all about risk assessment," she said.

Six inquiries into the shared-parenting laws are under way, with former Family Court judge Richard Chisholm likely to report to the government first.

Chief Justice Bryant said she had had "informal discussions" with Professor Chisholm.

"One of the things he has said to us ... is that many people say 'we don't raise these allegations because we don't think anything will happen'.

"But the judges say they do raise them. They are in every affidavit." She described it as "a circular argument which gets you nowhere". "If you don't raise it, you are never going to find out what the result's going to be and so I don't accept that argument," Chief Justice Bryant said.

"I hear it but I think it's a cop-out. If you don't raise it, then you can't expect an outcome."

Its good to see common sense every now and then. The mom in this case doesn't sound all that stable to me and the children could be put at risk with such an ill thought out move. Overington didn't even editorialize - what's up with her mom preferences today?MJM

THE mother of a three-year-old girl has been refused permission to move from Sydney to Queensland to be with a younger lover she met on the internet.

The father of the child argued against the move, saying it would seriously disrupt his relationship with the child.

The decision is a win for fathers who say that old custody laws too often enabled mothers to relocate after divorce, rupturing relationships between children and their dads. Two academic studies have shown that relocation has become more difficult under the shared parenting laws introduced by the Howard government in 2006.

Those laws are now under review.

The family law division of the Federal Magistrates Court, sitting in Newcastle, found that under shared parenting laws, the child was entitled to stay close to her father.

It dismissed the mother's argument that she would be "happier" in Queensland, living with her new lover. A mother's freedom of movement, and her right to start a new life after divorce, previously carried great weight in court.

The mother in the case, known as Walton and Dunham, wanted to relocate the child from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast to be with a new, younger lover described in court documents as "about 25". She is older, with a 10-year-old son besides the three-year-old girl. Her age wasn't given.

She separated from the father of the girl in October last year. Since separation, the parents have lived close to each other in Sydney, and the girl has spent "regular time" with her father.

In November last year, the mother applied to the Family Court, seeking permission to relocate to Queensland. She said she had met a new man on the internet a month earlier, and wanted to be with him.

Federal magistrate Janet Terry found the child had a "meaningful relationship" with both parents in Sydney, where she was able to "see her father regularly". If the mother was allowed to move, that contact would "inevitably diminish".

It would make the father a "holiday parent" who couldn't have any involvement with his daughter on school days. Ms Terry said: "The father is a good parent who is keen to be involved with (the child) on a regular basis. It would be a significant loss for (her) if she moved."

The court said there was no guarantee the new relationship would work out. The woman has never lived with the man, and has visited him only once.

"In my view, the child's interests will be best served by dismissing the mother's application to relocate from Sydney, to enable the girl to spend regular time with her father in Sydney," Ms Terry said.

Favourite Quotes

“The job of a father is this : to help his children develop, to teach them to express and master their emotions; to avoid physiological distress, to provide a context for their experiences; to help them persevere, reach their goals and take on responsibilities; and to instil the roles of citizen, partner and parent. In short, it is to fill their bellies with bread, their brains with wisdom and their hearts with love and courage.” Camil Bouchard, “On Father’s Ground” 2002.

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?" ~ George Bernard Shaw ~ also quoted by Robert F. Kennedy, US Senator and Presidential Candidate assassinated in 1968.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. ~ Robert Frost

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi

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Perth, Western Australia

Some Gems on relationships

Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband.

The motto of this Father's Rights Activist

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again ... and who, at the worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt,

Facts on violence in Canada Domestic and Otherwise

Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile, 2009.

Of the nearly 19 million Canadians who had a current or former spouse in 2009, 6.2% or 1.2 million reported they had been victimized physically or sexually by their partner or spouse during the five years prior to the survey. This proportion was stable from 2004 (6.6%), the last time the victimization survey was conducted, and down from 1999 (7.4%).

A similar proportion of men and women reported experiencing spousal violence during the five years prior to the survey. Among men, 6.0% or about 585,000, encountered spousal violence during this period, compared with 6.4% or 601,000 women.

Total 611, men 465, women 146Rate of homicides with firearms has increased 24% since 2002. Handgun use on increase (gangs don't register their weapons)Women victims 24% - lowest proportion everMen Victims 76%Both the rate of females killed (0.87 per 100,000 population), as well as the proportion(24%), were the lowest since 196162 spousal homicides - no change from 2007Lowest rate in 40 years45 women 17 (27.4%)men

Many DV homicides of men are not classified as such and this number is higher than 27.4%.

In 2009 based on a million couples it can fairly be said 999,998 wives do not kill their husbands and 999,995 husbands do not kill their wives. (See Pg. 15 chart modified from the rate per 100,000.)

In 2009, 49 women and 15 men were killed by a current or former spouse (excludes one same-sex spousal victim).

Total homicides 610, Men 450. Gang related 20.3 percent.69.1 % of firearm related deaths involved handgunsWomen 160, In 2009 it represented the second lowest proportion (26%) of female homicide victims since data were first collected. The rate of female victims has generally been declining since the late 1960s.

Profile

I am Politically active and right of centre on most issues with the odd exception such as legalization of "Mary Jane".
I advocate on changes to Family Law - an incredibly dysfunctional arena where parents are pitted against one another and children are the victims.
My picture will sometimes show me as a younger man simply because I like them.

An Alienated Child

Is a troubled child

American Coalition for Fathers & Children Petition

A quote by a well known Canadian Jurist

The Honorable Justice John Gomery of Canada stated, “Hatred is not an emotion that comes naturally to a child. It has to be taught. A parent who would teach a child to hate the other parent represents a grave and persistent danger to the mental and emotional health of that child.”

(The above quote arises from PSM vs. AJC, a decision rendered by Mr. Justice John Gomery on February 15 1991 (SCM 500-12-184613895), and confirmed by the unanimous judgment of the Court of Appeal on June 14 1991, the trial judge was confronted by a case involving four children caught up in a heated custody battle between their parents whereby the children became "catastrophically" alienated from their mother.)A good paper on PAS for lawyers by a lawyer, Anne-France Goldwater (Avocate), and excerpts from the above trial are located here.